Will chickens come home to roost in Rockford?

ROCKFORD — Rockford City Council members will consider changing urban chicken rules after receiving requests from residents who want to raise them and complaints from others who don't want feathered neighbors.

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By The Associated Press

The State Journal-Register

By The Associated Press

Posted Aug. 11, 2014 at 6:11 AM

By The Associated Press

Posted Aug. 11, 2014 at 6:11 AM

ROCKFORD — Rockford City Council members will consider changing urban chicken rules after receiving requests from residents who want to raise them and complaints from others who don't want feathered neighbors.

The Rockford Register Star reports city aldermen said they'd explore rules governing chicken raising after Greg Davis spoke at a council meeting last week. Davis kept six Rhode Island red hens in a backyard coop until a city code enforcement officer told him he was violating zoning laws and had to get rid of them.

Davis says officials should rethink the zoning rules and embrace a growing trend of harvesting eggs in backyards.

Opponents say chicken coops could be unhealthy, unsightly and smelly.

Ald. Joseph Chiarelli says about half of the people he's heard from support a rules change.